Spreading the Flame of Vesta
I was 20 years old—younger than my own child now—when I first heard the name “Vesta.” It was my first travel experience abroad, and I found myself in a unknown place that, many years later, I would come to know intimately… the Roman Forum. While cluelessly walking among the ruins, I met a woman burning a candle in front of a few standing columns, something that struck small-town me as an incomprehensibly exotic thing to do. It was she who first told me about those columns—columns that once housed the sacred flame of Vesta in its hearth—and ignited a passion that would last a lifetime. She even gave me the candle she was burning as the “best souvenir” of Italy. I still remember her words. I still have her candle, too, and like to think of it as her way of spreading the flame.
Where It Started for Me
It was here—in the Roman Forum, in front of these columns—that I first heard the name “Vesta.”
These columns are, of course, the recovered columns of the Temple of Vesta. You can get a sense of the temple’s original circular structure, and imagine the sacred hearthfire burning inside - in fact, the perspective of this photograph shows the inside wall of the temple.
Here is another pretty view of the ruins of the Temple of Vesta—a beautiful spot—with its recovered columns and encircling wall.
You can see the Palatine Hill in the background, with happy tourists looking down into the forum as the emperors once did.
“It is said that Numa built the temple of Vesta, where the perpetual fire was kept, of a circular form, not in imitation of the shape of the earth, believing Vesta to be the earth, but of the entire universe, at the center of which the Pythagoreans place the element of fire, and call it Vesta.”
- Plutarch
A Lavish Home for Rome’s Vestals
Adjacent to the Temple of Vesta is the House of the Vestals, once a beautiful multistory home with separate apartments for the priestesses and luxuries such as underfloor heating. This is a view of the central courtyard, with Vestal statues and ruins all around.
Pink roses grow in this courtyard today, and on a summer day, you might be lucky enough to see fish swimming in one of its two pools.
My “Vestal” Candle
This is the old milk-glass candle holder I received at the temple in 1989. It is definitely the “best souvenir” of Italy I’ve ever gone home with.
I now call this my vintage Vestal candle, since the white glass drapes like a Vestal’s stola.
Inside the container is hand-poured beeswax—very old and sooty, with bits of debris (bee bits?) and wax blooms that return no matter how many times I light it. But as far as I’m concerned, that only makes it more meaningful.
Still Spreading the Flame…
In this photo, I am lighting a wooden wick with the flame of my Vestal candle. I only light this candle once a year—March 1st, the date the Vestals renewed the sacred fire in the temple. When I do, I transfer its flame to wooden wicks like this so I can give them to friends and other like-minded people. Some people make their own candles using these wicks, but most simply pass the burnt end of the wick through the flames of their favorite purchased candles. Either way, it’s a sweet way to symbolically spread the flame.
Also on March 1st, I scoop out some of the old melted beeswax from my candle and add it to the wax blend I use to create other candles, including other beeswax candles and the colored candles I use to perform my candle readings. This is another way to spread the flame and the spirit of Vesta, and to connect people who love the old ways and the old gods.
You Can Spread the Flame Too
If you are so inclined, you can help spread that fire called Vesta simply by lighting a candle and seeing the goddess’s face in the living flame.
By doing so, you are connecting with the millions of people throughout history who have done the same: the great Caesars, the Vestal priestesses, the soldiers and the citizens - men, women, and children - for whom Vesta was a part of daily life. Vesta’s “eternal flame” is just that, and it has continued to be honored throughout the centuries by those who recognize its beauty and power. Against the backdrop of modern pagan revivalism, those numbers continue to grow.
If you’re looking for simple but meaningful rituals to immerse yourself in this beautiful religion, you may wish to visit the Vesta Today page.